Description

35cm Sacred Heart Marble Statue – small

Dimensions:  120mm L x 80mm W x 350mm H

Please note that all our Marble Art Statues are made on order. There is a lead time of approximately 10 working days.

Sacred Heart

Jesus’ Sacred Heart

The

Sacred Heart

is a devotional name used by some

Roman Catholics

to refer to

Jesus

. Devotion to the

Sacred Heart

in focusing on Christ’s

heart

metaphorically focuses on the emotional and moral life of Jesus and especially his


love


for humanity. It also stresses the central Catholic concept of loving Jesus. In the image, Christ’s heart is shown containing wounds to which Jesus is pointing, including a


crown of thorns


. This ‘wounded heart’ is meant to symbolise Christ’s hurt at the rejection of his message by humanity. In including the ‘crown of thorns’, it alludes to the manner of his death, which is further highlighted by the inclusion of crucifixion wounds on Christ’s hands. Thus the Christ of the image is of a post-resurrection Jesus speaking symbolically to humanity, not the pre-crucifixion Jesus of the

Gospels

.

The most significant source for the devotion to the Sacred Heart was

St. Margaret Mary

(Alacoque) (

22 July


1647

–

17 October


1690

) of the

Religious of the Visitation Order

who claimed to have received visions of Jesus Christ. In these visions she was told that those who prayerfully looked to the Sacred Heart would be given specific graces. In his

Papal Bull


Auctorem Fidei


Pope Pius VI

praised devotion to the Sacred Heart, which had its own critics within Roman Catholicism. However devotion to the Sacred Heart has been traced back as early as

St. Mechtilde

(d. 1298) and

St. Gertrude

(d. 1302).

Following a theological review, in his encyclical

Annum Sacrum

(

May 25


1899

)

Pope Leo XIII

decreed that the consecration of the entire human race to the

Sacred Heart of Jesus

should take place. It took place on

11 June


1899

. In more recent times the revered Italian cleric Padre Pio promoted and revived the concept of prayer directly to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Religious imagery of the Sacred Heart regularly featured in Catholic homes, particularly before

Vatican II

. Sometimes that image contained beneath it a list of family members, meaning that the entire family were devotees of the Sacred Heart, from whom blessings on the home and the family members were sought, often through the prayer

“O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in Thee”.

One particular image was used as part of a set, along with an image of the

Blessed Virgin Mary

. In that image, Mary too was shown pointing to her heart, expressing her maternal love for the human race and for her son, Jesus Christ. The mirror images reflect an eternal binding of the two hearts. This set of images is shown here.